Significance of the Man of the Hill in Fielding's Tom Jones
Henry Fielding's narrative Tom Jones brings to life a picaresque journey of a young boy in the English countryside. While traveling to London, Tom Jones encounters a mysterious old man known as the Man of the Hill. The Old Man relates to Tom and his friend Partridge his life story in an interpolated tale, which some contend strays from the central plot. Many readers fail to grasp the importance of the story in which the Old Man recites. The Old Man tells of how he left the study of books to travel through Europe and learn through his experiences. Unfortunately, his experiences have only taught him to detest mankind. Further, the Old Man now only studies the divine. While his early years were spent seeking knowledge from experience, the man now has burrowed himself in a cabin with only books to teach him. An intriguing way to view the Man of the Hill scene is to pull it through the ideas of philosopher, John Locke, and contemplate how they compare. Locke's ideas on learning were profoundly set forward in his work, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. Locke pushed forward his "blank slate" theory, which holds that man is created with no innate ideas, instead, all ideas and knowledge are learned through experience (L
While critics such as Ian Watt and Walter Allen do mention the Man of the Hill episode as irrelevant to the plot of the novel, when compared to Locke, the scene shines a new light of knowledge and experience that may have been Fielding's purpose (Watt 280; Allen 61). He states "my design when I went abroad, was to divert myself by seeing the wondrous variety of prospects" (Fielding 481). While only playing a minor role in the vast novel of Tom Jones, the Man of the Hill appears to aid Tom in developing knowledge on his own. His journals are available detailing his time in France. The Old Man's stories from Europe declare that he traveled with the intention of learning. It appears that Locke himself studied books. Locke clearly does not support institutionalized learning as the path to knowledge. Heroism is also exemplified when Tom saves the Man of the Hill from the robbers. There is proof however, that Locke was a student of literature. Tom recognizes the Old Man's error in judgment stating, "I believe. Locke believes a human gains experience through two functions: sensation and perception. Even with heroic feats, Tom's benevolence shill shines through. Tom, the adventure character he is, persists to climb the hill on a cold frosty night, which results in the discovery of a cabin (Fielding 443).
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